The Palais Garnier (French: [palɛ ɡaʁnje] , "Garnier Palace"), also known as Opéra Garnier (French: [ɔpeʁa ɡaʁnje] , "Garnier Opera"), is a historic 1,979-seat opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III. Initially referred to as le nouvel Opéra de Paris (the new Paris Opera), it soon became known as the Palais Garnier, "in acknowledgment of its extraordinary opulence" and the architect Charles Garnier's plans and designs, which are representative of the Napoleon III style. It was the primary theatre of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when a new opera house, the Opéra Bastille, opened at the Place de la Bastille. The company now uses the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet. The theatre has been a monument historique of France since 1923.
The Palais Garnier has been called "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica". This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and, especially, the novel's subsequent adaptations in films and the popular 1986 musical. Another contributing factor is that among the buildings constructed in Paris during the Second Empire, besides being the most expensive, it has been described as the only one that is "unquestionably a masterpiece of the first rank".
The Palais Garnier also houses the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra de Paris (Paris Opera Library-Museum), which is managed by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and is included in unaccompanied tours of the Palais Garnier.
Dimensions and technical details
The Palais Garnier is 56 metres (184 ft) from ground level to the apex of the stage flytower; 32 metres (105 ft) to the top of the façade.
The building is 154.9 metres (508 ft) long; 70.2 metres (230 ft) wide at the lateral galleries; 101.2 metres (332 ft) wide at the east and west pavilions; 10.13 metres (33.2 ft) from ground level to bottom of the cistern under the stage.
The structural system is made of masonry walls; concealed iron floors, vaults, and roofs.
The opera was constructed in what Charles Garnier (1825–1898) is said to have told the Empress Eugenie was "Napoleon III" style The Napoleon III style was highly eclectic, and borrowed from many historical sources; the opera house included elements from the Baroque, the classicism of Palladio, and Renaissance architecture blended together. These were combined with axial symmetry and modern techniques and materials, including the use of an iron framework, which had been pioneered in other Napoleon III buildings, including the Bibliothèque Nationale and the markets of Les Halles.
The façade and the interior followed the Napoleon III style principle of leaving no space without decoration. Garnier used polychromy, or a variety of colors, for theatrical effect, achieved different varieties of marble and stone, porphyry, and gilded bronze. The façade of the opera used seventeen different kinds of material, arranged in very elaborate multicolored marble friezes, columns, and lavish statuary, many of which portray deities of Greek mythology.
The principal façade is on the south side of the building, overlooking the Place de l'Opéra and terminates the perspective along the Avenue de l'Opéra. Fourteen painters, mosaicists and seventy-three sculptors participated in the creation of its ornamentation.
The two gilded figural groups, Charles Gumery's L'Harmonie (Harmony) and La Poésie (Poetry), crown the apexes of the principal façade's left and right avant-corps. They are both made of gilt copper electrotype.
Below Gumery's L'Harmonie, in the left (west) pediment, is a sculpted relief of two women sitting down representing Architecture and Industry by Jean Claude Petit. The women surround an escutcheon with the words "ARCHITECTURE" and "INDUSTRIE" in gold. The woman who represents architecture holds a compass and a plan of the Opéra Nouvel, at her feet is a winged genius holding a torch. The woman representing industry holds a lead pig and a hammer, while a winged genius stands at her feet, carrying a cup full of jewels.
In the right (east) pediment a sculpture of two women sitting down representing Painting and Sculpture by Théodore Gruyère. The women surround an escutcheon with the words "PEINTURE" (painting) and "SCULPTURE" in gold. The woman who represents painting holds a brush and a palette, at her feet is a putto holding a pencil.
The woman representing sculpture holds a hammer and a chisel, at her feet is a putto sculpturing a bust with a mallet and a gouge.
The bases of the two avant-corps are decorated (from left to right) with four major multi-figure groups sculpted by François Jouffroy (Poetry, also known as Harmony), Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume (Instrumental Music), Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (The Dance, criticised for indecency), and Jean-Joseph Perraud (Lyrical Drama). The façade also incorporates other work by Gumery, Alexandre Falguière and others.
Gilded galvanoplastic bronze busts of many of the great composers are located between the columns of the theatre's front façade and depict, from left to right, Rossini, Auber, Beethoven, Mozart, Spontini, Meyerbeer, and Halévy. On the left and right lateral returns of the front façade are busts of the librettists Eugène Scribe and Philippe Quinault, respectively.
The attic storey façade is decorated with low and high reliefs with the letters "N" and "E", the imperial monogram (Napoléon Empereur). The low reliefs are by Louis Villeminot, and the high reliefs are by Jacques-Léonard Maillet. The high reliefs consist of four sets of ornamental figures. Each group has two winged women on either side of a putto holding up a medallion bearing the letter ("E") and the imperial crown. One woman has a trumpet and a palm, the other, a torch and a palm. There were four repetitions of these themes. Two groups have a globe and a lyre on the ground, and the two other groups have two scrolls, a mask, and a laurel wreath. There are seven low reliefs with medallions surrounded by scrolls with two children on either side holding up a garland of flowers and fruits. Five are in the central part of the attic storey having the letter ("N") in the medallion and alternate the high reliefs, and the other two are on the east and west returns of the avant-corps.
A frieze running along the top of the attic storey has fifty-three comic and tragic antique masks in gilt cast iron by Jean-Baptiste Klagmann.